Utilizing Visual Hierarchy in Typography for Print, Web, and App Design

Visual hierarchy empowers viewers to quickly access the information they need. That’s why it’s crucial to ensure optimal performance in your print, web, or app design. This practical article will teach you how to leverage the two primary principles of visual hierarchy in typography, enabling you to create compelling document layouts, exceptional web design buttons, and clear components in your upcoming app or UI design.

In summary, it all boils down to purposefully guiding the viewers’ gaze and attention, with the most significant influence stemming from contrast and spacing. Typography achieves contrast in several ways, with weight being the most prominent method. Regarding spacing, elements that belong together should be placed closer. However, these techniques are only as effective as your design’s clarity of goals, relevance of content, and sound structure.

This article focuses on the visual representation of information rather than the content itself, providing various examples from document, web, and app design. Keep in mind that these principles apply to all disciplines with similar use cases. Ready? Let’s begin!

visual hierarchy: a guide to capturing viewer attention

Guiding the viewer’s eye translates to directing their attention. Let’s start with an example: Scott, a CPA, created a privacy policy document with decent type choices and overall good formatting. However, it lacked a crucial element – visual focal points. While the letterhead and title stood out, the subheadings, which should have structured the content, blended in with the rest of the text.

Before: The subheadings failed to stand out, causing everything to blend together.
After: Enhancing contrast and adjusting spacing improved the visual hierarchy and overall impression.

By increasing contrast in the subheadings, fine-tuning spacing, and addressing other details, the document became more digestible, leaving a more professional impression. You can observe the difference in the two documents, highlighting the impact of visual hierarchy in typography.

typography alone can’t fix unclear intent or poor structure

Now, let’s take a moment to consider the content. I once faced the daunting task of laying out a proposal spanning several hundred pages, featuring ten levels of headings. Despite experimenting with various font sizes, styles, types, and color combinations, the layout remained confusing. I felt frustrated, wondering why I couldn’t resolve it. That’s when I realized the issue wasn’t the design; it was the structure. I asked the client to streamline the content, ultimately reducing it to five levels of headings. While still substantial, it became manageable.

If the structure and goals of your document, website, or app are unclear, typography can’t rectify the issue. Instead, it exacerbates flaws. Therefore, before diving into design, ensure you:

1. Define the primary design goal.
2. Ensure the content’s relevance.
3. Clarify the levels of information.

Once you’ve established these, you can apply visual hierarchy to your text design, focusing on two main principles: contrast and spacing. Let’s examine them individually and then combine them later.

contrast establishes visual hierarchy

Begin by establishing your base, as a clear reference is essential. Select your primary typeface, size, and style. For instance, use 11 pt regular for text documents or 14 px functional text with font-weight: 500 for app design.

Contrast can be achieved through various means, including:

• Varying sizes (small, medium, large)
• Utilizing different styles (upright, italic, backslanted, all caps, or small caps)
• Pairing typefaces
• Adjusting font weights (light, regular, medium, black) or colors

Use as much variation as necessary but as little as possible. The choice depends on the type of text, whether it’s a heading, body copy, lead-in, label, caption, or pull quote. However, let’s begin by examining a classic scenario – combining a heading and copy in a text document.

In the privacy policy document mentioned earlier, the headings didn’t stand out sufficiently, despite being set in a larger and different typeface than the body text. To address this issue, several methods can enhance contrast:

• Using color to make the heading more prominent, although it’s still a subtle contrast.
• Switching to uppercase, which improves visibility but remains relatively light compared to the body text’s overall color.
• Reducing the heading’s size and setting it in bold to create a clear focal point.
• Increasing the type size if weight adjustments aren’t possible, making the heading more striking.

When it comes to contrast, any modification is preferable to leaving it unchanged. Your choice depends on how prominently you want the heading to stand out.

space amplifies visual hierarchy

Space serves as the second essential element for enhancing visual hierarchy. Once you’ve addressed contrast, space amplifies your decisions, helping viewers understand the relationships between elements. The general rule of thumb is simple: reduce space when elements belong together, and increase it when they don’t.

Consider the earlier example of the privacy policy document with subheadings that didn’t stand out. By adjusting spacing without altering the text style, you can draw more attention to the subheadings:

• Increase space before and after the subheading to immediately make it more noticeable.
• Further enhance clarity by increasing space before the subheading while decreasing it after, connecting it more effectively to the subsequent paragraph.

Alternatively, if you want the headings to be more prominent, combining contrast and spacing by setting them in bold and adjusting spacing can be ideal.

final thoughts

In conclusion, here are five guidelines for your next project:

1. Define the design’s goals and structure upfront.
2. Simplify hierarchies and maintain consistent styles.
3. Create clear distinctions between elements.
4. Use contrast to establish visual hierarchy.
5. Enhance your hierarchy with proper spacing to group related elements.

Remember that this discussion focuses on isolated design elements. To implement these principles effectively, consider how they apply to various elements across your project, ensuring a cohesive and user-friendly experience.

Do you have any additional tips for achieving visual hierarchy in typography? Share your thoughts in the comments below!